


Phone Call

by digitalsoop



Series: Kono Ai Wo Kasanete [3]
Category: Free!
Genre: Gen, Post Series, rei and gou worry about college, reigou friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-30
Updated: 2013-10-30
Packaged: 2017-12-30 19:15:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1022393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/digitalsoop/pseuds/digitalsoop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She should say why she called, but her throat feels like it’s being stepped on. She can’t remember why she thought it was a good idea to call him. She and Rei rarely speak casually to each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Phone Call

**Author's Note:**

> This started out as a venting fic and turned into something on the verge of Reigou. I don't think Gou is immune to stress, and she seems like the kind of person that carries a lot of stress on her own and doesn't know when to slow down. Same universe as Incalescent.

Gou is curled up in bed, surrounded by books and papers, and a white cat that is insisting on licking her nose no matter how many times she gently pushes it away; her tears must be delicious, or maybe Sailor is just trying to help, but it’s distracting and makes everything smell like cat food. She just really wants to focus on how many times the phone rings before someone finally picks up the other end, but she’s so busy nudging Sailor away she doesn’t realize they’ve already picked up until she hears a voice.

"Gou? Are you there?"

"Ah." The voice is too deep to be Makoto’s, and it’s not quite Rin’s.  _That’s right, I didn’t want to worry them so…_ "Rei?"

He’s quiet for a moment and Gou covers her mouth and closes her eyes. She should say why she called, but her throat feels like it’s being stepped on and Sailor is back. She can’t remember why she thought it was a good idea to call him. She and Rei rarely speak casually to each other.

He sighs and she takes a deep breath, “Sorry,” and her voice cracks and she immediately covers her mouth again.

"Gou?" The worry in his voice makes her bury her face into her mattress, and it’s almost immediately soaked with tears. "Did something happen? Are you out?"

She turns her head to answer but her throat is still too tight. “I’m at home.” Her voice sounds thick and strained but at least it doesn’t crack.

"Okay." He sounds relieved, but falls silent again. "You… didn’t break up with Makoto, did you?"

"No, we didn’t break up."

"I thought since you didn’t call him, instead…"

"I didn’t want to worry him." She takes another deep breath as Sailor finally jumps off her bed. "I didn’t want to trouble anyone, really, I’m sorry I called."

"W-wait, I never said you were bothering me. I was just going to take a break from studying anyway."

Gou sniffles, slowly looking at the papers on her bed. She doesn’t feel like sobbing anymore, but her mouth is still quivering. “Y-You’re still trying to get into Todai, right?”

"Yes," he hesitates and she can almost see him adjusting his glasses. "Um, but my parents say that Osaka is a more reasonable distance than Tokyo, so I’m looking at Handai, too. Plus, there’s the two year wait before I could study any specific field…"

"But Todai is impressive," she mutters and Rei makes a small sound of agreement.

"I won’t give up on Todai. Even if I don’t go there, just to know that I had been accepted…" he trails off, but he sounds incredibly moved at the idea of getting an acceptance letter, "are you hoping to go to Hiroshima?"

"I still haven’t decided." Though that’s where Makoto ended up going, she doesn’t know if that’s the school that will help her achieve what she wants. Whatever that is. Her throat is squeezed tight again, and she does her best to speak carefully. "I’ve been studying hard, but maybe it’s for nothing."

Her voice cracks anyway, and he hears Rei make a small noise, as if he’s surprised. “You don’t have to decide yet. If you definitely want to keep going, study hard. You’ll be ready for any entrance exam! You can choose when you get their acceptance letters.”

"But I don’t know what I want to do. Not like Makoto, or Rin. They knew what they wanted to do. You know too, don’t you?"

"Gou…" he hesitates and she knows it’s because she’s crying openly, her voice shaking and cracking with little regard for her dignity or his comfort.

"I’m just studying because I feel like I should. Because everyone else is doing it. But if I go to college with that mind set, won’t it be worthless? I’ll be a bum that doesn’t know what to do. It’ll be a waste!"

"I-I don’t think that’s true. Gou," he pauses when she sniffles, but his voice sounds sure and confident. "Learning is never a waste, even if there’s no goal in mind. Surely, if you’re learning, you’ll discover something new about yourself, too."

She looks down, wiping her hand across her cheek. Her eyes sting and her eyelids are heavy, but she wants to keep listening, so she makes a small sound to let him know she’s still there.

"I don’t really know what to do once I get to college either," he admits. "But I know that I should try anyway. Even though I wasn’t really sure I wanted to swim when I first joined the club, it became what I wanted to do."

 His voice is quiet and careful, and she can hear his glasses move against the phone as they’re adjusted. “There are more things that a book can’t teach you, things that you have to feel for yourself. So you won’t grow as a person if you don’t try, or get hurt, or meet someone new.

"I… learned a lot from everyone in the swim club. If we had only been classmates, and I hadn’t been in the club, I wouldn’t have even answered my phone, because it would have gotten in the way of studying. Haruka said once that pressure can break people right?"

She nods, but he can’t see that so she makes another small sound in agreement, and thinks of her brother.

"You’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself, aren’t you? I bet you’ve been studying without a break, too." He pauses, but she’s too ashamed to respond. Maybe she’s more like Rin than she realized. "Nagisa, and Makoto and Haruka, they were always there with me during those first weeks in the club. They took some of that pressure on themselves, too. If you try to carry too much pressure alone you can’t do it."

She nods, her mouth quivering again. “Right.”

"I know you don’t want to trouble anyone but… naturally, friends don’t mind when things get a little troublesome. It’s okay to ask if you need help. That’s why you called, right?"

"Rei…"

"We can study together. Nagisa and I were already talking about how it gets kind of lonely, we could make it like a club!" He sounds so enthused that Gou laughs.

"If I want to be able to pass any entrance exam, I’ll need your help. Please take care of me from now on, okay?"

"Naturally." 

**Author's Note:**

> Todai is Tokyo University and Hodai is Osaka University. 
> 
> I did a lot of research into the town Iwatobi is based on when I wrote this, and though it was later revealed that some of the people that work on the show imagined Makoto would go to school in Tokyo, Hiroshima is actually much closer and one of the top schools in Japan. I think Makoto is pretty practical, so wouldn't go very far unless he was getting a free ride or something, which I don't know if they do. In my headcanon Makoto wants to be a teacher.


End file.
